Drone carrying package crashes in Gurugram locality; FIR against company
Gurugram, Feb 17: A drone on way to deliver a package hit a dish antenna, triggering a scare in a residential locality here.
The incident took place in G Block of South City 2 residential area around 5 pm on Thursday, police said.
The drone was being flown by Skye Air at a time when prohibitory orders were in force due to Chief Minister M L Khattar's visit in the district and a case has been registered against the company, they said.
The RWA of the society informed the Sector 50 police station about the incident and a police team reached the spot.
In a statement, logistics solution provider Skye Air said an obstacle in the drone's path prompted an "emergency landing in a nearby open area". "Unfortunately, due to the uneven surface, the drone collided with a dish antenna," causing the UAV to topple on the rooftop, it said.
In an earlier statement, the company said the pilot, after getting to know about the prohibitory orders, "attempted to make an emergency landing on a building in compliance with the law".
Use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones etc.) in Gurugram district was banned on February 15 and 16 in accordance with the prohibitory orders enforced under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Based on a complaint, an FIR was registered against Skye Air under Indian Penal Code sections 188 ( disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 287 (negligent conduct to respect to machinery), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) at Sector 50 police station on Thursday night.
It has been told that the drone crashed due to some technical fault, the FIR said.
"We have taken the damaged drone into possession and are investigating. Action will be taken against the company in accordance with law," said Inspector Jitender Kumar, SHO of Sector 50 police station.
A Skye Air spokesperson stated that the company has obtained all required approvals and permissions for drone operations along the approved route.
"During yesterday's flight at 4.15 PM, our UAS sensors detected an obstacle obstructing the path, prompting an emergency landing in a nearby open area. Unfortunately, due to the uneven surface, the drone collided with a dish antenna, causing it (drone) to topple.
"Our team promptly responded, securing the site and taking necessary actions for safe retrieval. Subsequently, we conducted a thorough internal investigation and submitted comprehensive reports to both the DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation," the spokesperson said.
The company also said the information about the enforcement of Section 144 in the district was only disseminated by the Gurugram DC at 5.41 PM on X and other social media platforms. "No such information was provided to the drone operators beforehand. We received this information only after the incident occurred," the spokesperson said.
In an initial statement, a company spokesperson said the drone was on its routine flight, and around 5 pm, "we received a notification on Twitter (now X) that Section 144 had been imposed". "Consequently, our pilot attempted to make an emergency landing on a building in compliance with the law, but the building's surface was not smooth, causing the drone to hit the plant pots," the spokesperson said.
Skye Air entered into a partnership with an e-commerce platform this month for delivery of packages by drones.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
